Twenty-two states of European Union have attended the ceremony in Japan and signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Thursday, January 26. An ACTA is a global treaty that is somehow similar to SOPA and PIPA – which try to normalize copyright protection and IP standards.
Parliamentary Vice-Minister Nakano expressed his welcome for the signing on the Agreement by the EU and its Member States and stated that he was confident that this signing would create a further momentum towards early entry into the force and expansion of participation to the Agreement, and that Japan intended to cooperate with the EU and other ACTA Participants to reach out to other countries for this purpose.
On behalf of the EU, Mr. Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Japan, stated that ACTA, an initiative led by Japan, aims to improve enforcement mechanisms to help its members combat IPR infringement more effectively. This is an objective that the EU and its MS share with its trade partners
Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States signed the ACTA on 1 Oct 2011. As of yesterday, they are joined by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom – 22 EU states.
